World

March 23, 2004

By Compiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn and Ross Atkin

Defying international condemnation, Israel's government said the missile strike that killed Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin is far from the end of its fight against Palestinian terrorism. There will be systematic targeted attacks against "activists, deputies, [and] leaders, anywhere they are," Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Yassin's hands "were soaked in the blood of hundreds of Israeli children." Yassin died as he and aides left a mosque in Gaza City, touching off a procession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians demanding revenge.

Other Hamas leaders called on Muslims around the world to retaliate for Yassin's death and suggested that the US would be a target, since "the Zionists didn't carry out their operation without the consent" of the Bush administration. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which has ties to Yasser Arafat, vowed reprisals "within hours, God willing." Arafat's aides said he was unnerved by the killing of Yassin and "feels his turn is next."

Army units in northern Pakistan found a network of tunnels leading from the hideout where a "high-value target" - perhaps senior Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri - was believed to be trapped. An Army spokesman said "there is a possibility" their quarry used the tunnels to escape early in the operation that began last week. Despite a mission by tribal elders to broker a deal that would end the confrontation, Pakistani forces came under new attack Monday. There were no early reports of casualties.

Hundreds of heavily armed government troops were sent to western Afghanistan to keep order following the assassination Sunday of Aviation Minister Mirwais Sadiq. His death touched off factional fighting in which more than 100 people were killed.

Less than a month after signaling his accepance of Iraq's new constitution, senior Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned the UN against endorsing it. In a letter obtained by news services, the top cleric said the Shiite "religious establishment fears" that the US and its coalition partners will try to confer "international legitimacy" on the charter by including it in a new UN resolution on Iraq's postwar future. The interim Governing Council has invited a UN team to Iraq to help in forming the first government, but al-Sistani said he'd refuse to meet with team members unless the constitution is rejected.

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